The Ties That Bind
by Dante de Troy
Summary: Sequel to Newcomer, second in the Forever Friends Trilogy. An old friend pays a call on Alex and the Smallville crew, with repercussions for everyone. How will the another newcomer's presence affect the future of Smallville?
1. Introduction

The Ties That Bind  
  
By Joshua "Dante" Epstein  
  
Introduction  
  
This is the second in a trilogy which will center around my "mary-jane"-ing of myself and my two best friends. The idea is an interesting one, though, in that it presents an odd confrontation. Clark's abilities and those of all of the enemies he has faced on Smallville (at least so far) have been of a scientifically explainable nature. The abilities granted to Alex and his friends in the events described in Newcomer are not. The conflict between the scientifically reasonable and the magical is one that has gone on for centuries, and I thought that it was time this conflict was brought to the world of Smallville. It should be a welcome break for those among you who are staunch enemies of the krypto-freak of the week concept that seems to lessen our little show, and will (if I do what I hope with this story) be an interesting study in character.  
  
Just a few words before we launch in: this story is set in the Smallville universe, but not quite the one you know. For example, as soon as I introduced Alex, I altered a lot of the things that will effect other events to come. For instance, the immediacy of the whole Chloe/Clark/Lana triangle would be a bit lessened by the growing relationship between Chloe and Alex. Likewise, events in Nicodemus and other episodes will factor into this story, in a slightly altered fashion, and you may be fascinated by how I manage to work this storyline in as being partly responsible for some of these events.  
  
So, with all that said, let us begin and I hope you enjoy the second installment in the Forever Friends Trilogy, The Ties That Bind.  
  
Joshua "Dante" Epstein May 21, 2003 


	2. Prologue

The Ties That Bind  
  
By Dante  
  
(Disclaimer: Smallville and all related characters are property of Warner Brothers and DC Comics. Alex Byers is not my creation, but my modification of his life is. Apologies to the true Ale X, you know I love ya, man!)  
  
(Note: This is set before the events of Vortex)  
  
Prologue: Odyssey  
  
Moonlight shone over the empty waste that made up the vast majority of the Oklahoma landscape. Rays of reflected light glittered from the few spots of metal still shining through on the rusted husks of abandoned oil wells.  
  
The figure that looked skyward, peering up from the rock on which it crouched, could easily have been mistaken for a wolf. The legs rested underneath the haunches and the head panned smoothly from side to side, catching whiffs in the air of possible predators. It was, however, not a wolf. Once, it had known its name, but that day was long gone. For months, it had been out in the wilderness, living among the beasts whose thoughts penetrated its own mind, burying the boy who had been known as Joshua Epstein beneath the layers and layers of instinct that made up the life of a wild beast. Somewhere, though, within the recesses of that mind that had once been human, a single driving instinct pulled at the soul of the boy-beast.  
  
Find him.  
  
He no longer remembered who "him" was, but he could feel the bond between them pulling him, urging him on to the north. Toward a place that was the only other word he remembered.  
  
Smallville. 


	3. Chapter One: Acceptance

The Ties That Bind  
  
By Dante  
  
(Disclaimer: Smallville and all related characters are property of Warner Brothers and DC Comics. Alex Byers is not my creation, but my modification of his life is. Apologies to the true Ale X, you know I love ya, man!)  
  
Chapter One: Acceptance  
  
Alex looked around the school and felt a surge of pride. As he walked down the hallway, he was greeted with smiles and laughs and felt that pride swim even closer to the surface as a hand snagged his arm.  
  
"Hey handsome, where do you think you're going?"  
  
Chloe and Alex had been fast friends, as one might expect from two such personable young folk. What no one had expected was how quickly the seeds of romance that had been laid in those first few days had blossomed. They weren't one of those annoying couples that made out in the hallways, but everyone saw the easy way that they sat together against the lockers, looking quite the pair; each with a cup of coffee in his or her hand, the slant of their bodies just ever-so-pointed toward each other.  
  
It had taken most of the school the first half of the term to notice anything, they had been that discreet. To most anyone, Alex and Chloe had just seemed tremendously close friends. But Clark Kent wasn't just anyone. He found himself almost unable to help his actions when, in the afternoons, he would direct his supernormal sight at the Torch offices and see that extra added something, those things that no one else saw. He saw when Chloe would snake her arms around Alex's chest from behind and hold him tightly, or when she would kiss Alex's hand as it lay on her shoulder.  
  
He told himself that he had no feelings for Chloe, and had done his best to act as such, but he still couldn't help but feeling the tiniest bit jealous as he watched Alex and Chloe sit together, his otherworldly eyes able to catch a glimpse of the newcomer's photo at the back of her locker, just out of sight. He was happy for her, happy that she'd found someone, but a part of him still wished that Alex hadn't interfered in the drama that was Clark Kent's love life.  
  
Pete now joined the two at the lockers, the trio looking every bit the happy, go-lucky bunch of high school youngsters. Clark, too, made his way over, completing the tableau for any who might care to look. No one passing would guess, though, that out of the four people gathered there, two of them possessed abilities inexplicable through any conventional means. One was the star-born progeny of a dying race, the other a normal man blessed with abilities from powers that had yet to reveal themselves. Despite his nagging jealousy, Clark had discovered that he liked Alex. The two of them rarely talked about the events the night of Lex's party, when Clark had observed Alex harnessing and mastering the power of the storm that was ravaging the countryside. Though they had never openly discussed the abilities that Alex had demonstrated, it was somehow a comfort to Clark that there was one person who shared the burden he did; that horrible pain of never being able to tell your friends or those closest to you your deepest secrets, to not be able to share those things that, whether you liked them or not, made up so much of who you were. It gave him a bit of hope that Alex was so happy in his new life.  
  
Alex, for his part, couldn't have been happier. Well, he thought, that isn't entirely true. For the last two months, since only a few days after he'd moved to Smallville, no one had heard from his childhood friends, Josh and Kelsay. Kelsay had disappeared only days after Josh had, and no one had seen them since. The Texas law enforcement officers had suggested that the two had run off together, but close investigation had turned up no sign of any communication between the two other than a few brief phone calls which had been overheard by others and had no discernable meaning beyond old friends saying hello. Chloe had even tried to help, pulling what few strings she could with a couple contacts at the Daily Planet, and no one had known a thing.  
  
After school had become Clark's favorite part of the day and when the bell finally rang to signal the end of class, he hurried out to the fields beyond the school to where Alex and a number of other boys, including Pete, were waiting.  
  
"Heya Clark!" Pete shouted. "Hurry up, man, we're about to start!"  
  
He hadn't told his father about this particular after-school activity that he had taken up at Alex's invitation. He was sure that Jonathan Kent would not be too keen on his not-quite-normal son playing soccer with his classmates, who didn't even have pads, as they did in football, but Clark had discovered that it was one of the few sports that required so much skill to actually play well that it was one of the few sports that could still challenge him. He couldn't rely simply on speed and power, he actually had to learn to guide the ball where he wanted it to go and to cooperate with his teammates. He rarely felt as fulfilled or as normal as he did when he was playing.  
  
The game was a friendly one, with the players quickly forgetting the score after a series of amazing plays on both sides. Afterward, Clark had to head home, but Alex had remained behind on the field.  
  
"Penny for your thoughts?"  
  
"I dunno, you might want change back."  
  
Chloe had found him sitting alone in the woods just beyond where they'd been playing, watching as the sun slowly sank below the horizon. This was where he came, she knew, when he was feeling thoughtful. "What's up?" She said, settling into the grass next to him.  
  
"I don't really know. I feel like I'm missing something. do you ever have that feeling? Like there's something you should know that's just tickling at the back of your mind, and you know that if you knew what it was, you'd be doing something about it, but you just can't figure out what it is." he trailed off, the frustration in his voice very evident to she who knew how to hear it.  
  
"I know what you mean. I used to feel that a lot, whenever I'd think about Clark. That there was something I was missing. I thought that about you, too, when you first moved here."  
  
That earned a bemused grin from Alex.  
  
"Oh really? Was I going to end up as another mystery in Chloe's personal wall of weird?"  
  
"You might have. I'm glad you didn't."  
  
"Me too."  
  
The two of them sat there, alone, as the sun set over Smallville and didn't leave until they were made slightly nervous by the sound of howling in the distance. 


End file.
